DISH High Calcium Levels Calcium Cardiac SCORE

@lindasheen I wanted to share my mom's experience with a high blood calcium score that was over 10 and maybe 11 if I remember right. For her, that was caused by a problems with her parathyroid glands which are what controls if you deposit calcium in your bones or remove calcium from your bones. Her parathyroids were causing loss of calcium from her bones causing severe osteoporosis. She did later have several fractures related to thin bones. You might want to consider a consultation with an endocrinologist in addition to your other referrals. It takes such a long time to try to reverse bone loss. The doctors removed the faulty parathyroid glands and my mom's blood calcium levels returned to normal. You may want to ask your doctors who you should see if it is a possible parathyroid problem.

Here is Mayo's information about how the parathyroids can cause high blood calcium and bone loss.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyperparathyroidism/symptoms-causes/syc-20356194

This is a very interesting conversation. I had elevated calcium levels about six times, but they were not that much above 10. At first the physician did not think that was too high but I said to him something is very wrong. So finally, he ran a PTH level and it was elevated. So I was already seeing an endocrinologist And he sent me there. So I went through scans and they found one of my four parathyroid was bad. So I had two nodules on my thyroid so they decided to biopsy those and see if they were a problem because if they were going in to take the parathyroid out, they were going to take the thyroid out as well, but did not have to take the thyroid out because the biopsies were negative.
But prior to the parathyroid surgery, I had to have open-heart surgery. We did not know about the elevated calcium at that point. I had a heart valve replacement- the aortic valve, because I was born with bicuspid heart valve. I also had an ascending aorta graft done due to aneurysm. No blockages in arteries, so no bypass. This was two weeks after my 50th birthday.
So a few years later I get diagnosed with dish. And of course I’m reading and reading and reading about the disease. When I mentioned to my cardiovascular surgeon that I have been diagnosed with dish and it’s a connective tissue disorder, I said, do you think that had anything to do with my aneurysm? He said I’m not sure if it’s dish that caused it, but you definitely have a connective tissue disorder. So I have read that there is a connection between dish patients and coronary events.

There is also a lot of information at parathyroid.com as well as Mayo’s clinic. In fact, I do have an app that I plug all my data into call the calcium pro app. But since I’ve had my surgery, I have not had my calcium go above normal except for right after surgery one time and then since then, it’s been normal range.
The body is quite an enigma. I would say make sure you do see an endocrinologist as well. Best wishes to you.

Jennifer, I am glad that you found this helpful. Just giving my experience. And I have done so much reading.
I advise so many people to read and learn as much as they can about what’s going on inside of them.

Linda, my CAC score is 489, mostly in the right coronary artery. Do you have the full CAC report? Which md type diagnosed DISH and was it first noticed in an MRI ? Do you have to watch calcium intake. Is there any treatment.
Normal calcium levels for adults (at UCLA) max at 10.3. I'm always at 10.

"The presence of DISH is independently associated with an increased incidence and risk for ischaemic stroke, but 𝐧𝐨𝐭 with with Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events, myocardial infarction, vascular death or all-cause mortality." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9258598/

I have read a lot, and this is just one of the excerpts I found.

Here is another article to look at.